Just when we think things can't get worse in the financial disaster hovering over Juneau, another clueless legislator comes up with a plan that shows little understanding of how Alaska works. ("Wilson would slash up to 1,000 UA jobs," by Alaska Dispatch News columnist Dermot Cole, Feb. 21.)
Apparently we are not moving into a recession fast enough for Rep. Tammie Wilson, R-North Pole. She would grease the skids in this downward spiral by increasing unemployment in the state even further, eliminating up to 1,000 jobs from University of Alaska sites statewide on top of the close to 500 jobs that already disappeared from the university system last year and additional hundreds of jobs before that. Besides increasing unemployment she would compound this insult to our economy by putting UA research programs on the chopping block along with all that Outside money UA research programs bring into the system statewide.
Wilson seems unaware that the university puts more than $1 billion directly and indirectly into the economy. In 2012, for every $1 invested in UA, the university generated $3.25 in economic activity within the state (McDowell Group Analysis, The Economic Impact of the University of Alaska). That boon to the economy could only be expected to continue and grow were the system left to thrive. UA employees live in Alaska and don't make off with their earnings like nonresident workers in the oil and fishing industry do. They spend their dollars around the state in the many communities with university sites. Also, due to their respected position in the world of Arctic and marine research, UA researchers generate additional revenue from multiple industries and the federal government. When the state is desperately searching for new revenue, it makes no sense to cut off this important, reliable revenue source.
As destructive as this plan is to an already struggling economy, it is even more troublesome in the way it hits at the heart of any viable quality of life for Alaska families.
With a decimated university, where professor positions remain unfilled and needed classes for degrees are not available, Alaska youth are often forced to seek an education Outside. Once gone they are often not likely to return. Bad decisions by Alaska legislators leave our children with diminishing opportunities in their home state. When more meaningful futures are more readily available Outside, we lose our most important resource, our children, and with them any hope for a sustainable future for Alaska.
Let's hope that saner heads in Juneau will apprise Wilson of the folly of her plan. If she succeeds in destroying this most important asset, the University of Alaska, we may just as well get ready to declare Alaska a failed if noble experiment and settle into being nothing but a mere fiefdom of oil industry potentates.
Marian Elliott is a retired elementary school teacher and a University of Alaska Anchorage graduate. She lives in Wasilla.
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